Both of these guys were within a few yards of each other on the jardin today for the Fiesta de la Conquistadors.
Some of the caption suggestions are:
Too Much of A Good Thing
Seen and Being Seen
Mexican American Broadband
Fat Chance
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As the sun rises over the canyon walls, the yellow ficus are lit afire, with delicate purple highlights from the nearby jacaranda tree. Nature’s color wheel on display and a perfect opportunity for the photo club assignment of a single person in an image.
Lonely Planet doesn’t list the Mariposa Reserve in Michoacan Mexico as one of the 100 places to visit before you die, but it should. Our Audubon trip to the El Rosario Reserve last week has been the highlight of our trip to Mexico.
We left early on a Thursday morning. By midday we were in a little canyon wonderland of an Inn called Aguablanca located on the banks of a river, lush with towering yellow ficus trees, maidenhair ferns, bananas trees, bamboo. What a pleasure to be once again in a world of green and to hear the sound of wind through trees accompanied by the song of a fast moving river. And the elegantly shaped hot spring pools were both restorative and beautiful with their purple jacaranda highlights.
Our education about the incredible life cycle of the monarchs began on the bus ride down with a documentary about a pilot who followed the annual migration from Canada to Mexico in an ultralight, and continued in the evening with a Nova special on the monarchs. Millions of monarchs from the US and Canada return to the forests of Michoacan’s mountain peaks every fall where they spend the winter huddled in the treetops. In March, they mate and then die. Their children begin the trek back north in April. Along the way, 2 more generations will lay eggs and it will be the third generation that makes it back to the far north. The 4th and final generation will return to Michoacan in the fall. Imagine returning to the forest of your great, great grandparents whom you never met. Monarch butterflies are the only species on the planet with such a multi-generational migration.
On Friday morning we entered a high mountain reserve where at first it appeared as though there was some kind of rust on the leaves and trunks of the towering trees. But soon it became clear that what we were seeing was millions, and I do mean millions, of monarchs huddled together to stay warm. As the sun got warmer they began to flutter about, clouds of golden orange. If you sat really quietly you could hear the rustle of their wings.
I thought I would come away with incredible pictures, but swarms at a distance are beyond the ability of my camera to capture. And the distance that I as photographer needed to capture the experience left me missing the very heart of the moment. So after some feeble attempts, I surrendered to one of the most stunning mornings of my life and will remember always the gentle whoosh of a million wings in flight.
Carnaval came to San Miguel this weekend. The holiday merrymaking before Lent begins is celebrated with gorgeous paper flowers and thousands of confetti filled eggs. Children of all ages run through the Jardin breaking them on each other’s heads, as well as on gringo photographers… The squeals of laughter are punctuated with the sounds of tango music as the old timers dance all around the gazebo.
For anyone suffering from winter drabness and a steady diet of brown & gray, this is for you. A gift of of Mexican vibrance from the paper flower vendors and creators of egg people who surrounded the Jardin of San Miguel de Allende on this Carnaval morning.
It has been a cool and rainy week here in San Miguel, unusual for this time of year, but delightful nonetheless. Late-night fiestas on rooftop terraces are on hold as are most of the fireworks which make for better sleeping. And more importantly, the parched landscape is coming alive before my eyes. Each visit to the Botanical Garden reveals new baby shoots of greens on the ground and in the nooks and crannies of the many cacti.
On Wednesday I spent a day with CASA, (http://www.casa.org.mx/) an organization here in San Miguel that provides a wide array of services to folks here in town and all over the state. Started originally to address issues of reproductive health and domestic violence, it now offers health, nutrition, midwifery, sex education, daycare, and a library and literacy program. I went with the theater group and folks from the health and education program to a small community about an hour away from here.
My job was to take photographs that could be used on their website and in their promotional materials. In many respects, it was like returning to my social service roots at Berkeley Children’s Services, where we provided many of the same services.
As the vans drove down the dusty road, we were greeted by women carrying rakes and machetes. The activities for the day included cleaning up the children’s playground, weight and blood pressure checks, a theater performance about domestic violence, zumba class, cooking a healthy communal meal of “vegetarian ceviche.” Mexico has the highest rate in the world for infant obesity and extremely high rates of diabetes and heart disease. Changing eating habits is a major educational effort. The day concluded with gifts of hats for the adults and toothbrushes for the kids.
Anado McLaughlin and his partner Richard - in art and in real life.
Anado, left, is the creator of the Chapel of Jimmy Ray-
art from recycled materials, including hundreds of beautiful blue tequila bottles,
not to mention to most colorful two seater outhouse this side of the Rio Grande.
Twenty six years ago, Superbowl Sunday was on the last Sunday of January and the Patriots were playing. Although I am hardly a football fan, I know because it was the day of our daughter’s naming ceremony.
We were out on the deck after the ceremony enjoying a sunny Oakland winter afternoon- clear skies and 72 degrees- when I noticed that my darling infant daughter was looking red. I had her all swaddled in blankets like my mother taught me and my poor baby was roasting. New England child rearing practices needed a bit of an adjustment for Pacific breezes.
Now a quarter century later - Amelia is on her way to watch the game with friends in downtown Boston and I am in the central highlands of Mexico. In a few minutes I will take my apple cobbler around the corner and watch the game with former Bostonians…
Dramatic rain clouds waltz across the February sky - a rare event in San Miguel de Allende.
It is unusual for it to rain in February in San Miguel. But the moisture is welcome.. and makes for a new view of agaves.
Agave Abstractions
The gazebo in the Jardin is seldom empty. The creche from Christmas was replaced by a statue of Ignacio Allende, but now that his birthday has passed, the statue has gone to where ever it lives the other 50 weeks a year, and the youthful breakdancer of San Miguel have made it their stage.
I think we saw this guy hurt his wrist the night before, but it obviously has no deterrent value.
This afternoon, when the sun was well to the west, and I was heading out of Mexicito, Santuario Hogar Guadalupano, the boys orphanage where David and I have helping out, my eye was drawn to the blue glass panes over the door of the chapel.
My previous visits had never taken me there so I decided to investigate. What a delightful surprise. A simple world of stone, was bathed in a stunning blue light from three domed windows in the ceiling. The back wall was lit with a celestial blue I never seen on stone before.
